I will be crowned king

May 30th, southern border of Thun.

The sun sets in the west, and the vast land shrouded in the blood-red sunset has turned into a scorched earth.

The golden wheat fields burned in the raging fire, and the thick black smoke covered the sky; accompanied by screams, figures wearing colorful uniforms and holding rifles with cruel and bloodthirsty smiles rushed into the quilt in groups. Villages and towns shrouded in black smoke.

On the road between the ignited farmhouses, there were several corpses lying in random directions. The figure holding a rifle rushed into the village stepping on the cold bones and blood stains that had not yet dried up, and smashed open every closed door with a smile. The door was knocked open, and every locked box was opened. The bright bayonet was pointed at every living creature, including hyenas.

From time to time, several figures emerged from the thick smoke, holding guns and farm tools and trying to resist; a few sparse gunshots pierced the sky, followed by roars and screams that stopped suddenly, and the shadowy figures fell to the ground. Under the bayonet and the still smoking muzzle.

Outside the villages and towns, more old, young, women and children were strung together with hemp ropes like animals. They watched helplessly as the soldiers set fire to their houses and fields, and watched as they took away their few clothes and taxes. Using copper plates, watching my father, daughter, husband, sister... watching them resist, struggle, scream, struggle, cry, struggle...

With dull eyes, he watched them turn into corpses.

Immediately afterwards, a knight riding a horse and wearing a purple one-shoulder cape, holding a red bull flag, appeared majestically in front of the villagers with dull expressions.

Accompanied by the grins of the soldiers wantonly venting their desires, the wailing of the villagers who fell under the bayonet and the muzzle of the gun; the knight who dismounted from his horse walked solemnly on the road covered with blood and bones, planting the bull flag in the center of the village. In the center of the square, he said solemnly:

"In the name of the distinguished Raghar family, I declare that from now on, this land officially belongs to the Principality of Paya!"

Similar scenes are happening simultaneously in every village, town and farm on the border of Thun.

Ever since the Principality of Paya officially declared war on the Grand Duchy of Thun and launched the invasion, the situation has been extremely smooth.

After 18,000 of the most elite troops went north to fight against the Yser elves, the entire Thun immediately fell into an unprecedented state of emptiness; the hastily organized recruits could not even hold a rifle and faced the Principality of Paya. The five thousand elite divisions often collapse at the first touch.

In just one week, Paya gnawed away all the border territories of Thun, burned and looted dozens of farms of various sizes, and thousands of Thun people were captured as slaves; waiting for them will be the Paya nobles manors and dark mines.

In the face of the fall of the territory, Archduke Claude Francois, who was extremely strong in the past and who was known as "a stomping foot can bring an army of 60,000", was surprisingly silent this time.

Not only did he not retaliate immediately, but in order to prevent the army of the Principality of Paya from continuing to invade inward, he gathered 10,000 new soldiers and deployed an extremely long defense line scattered along the border of Thun.

The strength of 10,000 troops is no more than 10,000, but spreading it flat across the entire front can only play a little warning role; and these new recruits can't even hold a rifle, and cavalry and artillery do not exist at all. Cannot pose any threat to intruders.

Even so, Duke Lagar of the Paya Principality still did not dare to act rashly.

Although they are both one of the Seven Cities Alliance, the Grand Duchy of Thun is the "gatekeeper" of the northern gate of the alliance. It not only has a long history but also has strong strength; while the Principality of Paya is more like a make-up, and it can only pull out 5,000 people with all its efforts. An army of men.

Out of caution, or to embolden himself, Duke Lagar approached two small counties and a free city around him, promising to equally divide Thun's territory after the war, and at the same time, he took it out with all his strength. A large "departure fee".

With the help of inducements, Paya's military strength increased from 5,000 to 10,000, at least on paper it has the strength to fight against the main force of Thun.

Therefore, adhering to his absolute trust in his allies, Duke Lagar lined up five thousand reinforcements on the border of Thun and faced off against Thun's 10,000 new soldiers.

And his own elite of 5,000 Pal principalities were operating on the inside, continuing to plunder and raid farms in Thun territory, searching for people and supplies, so that the morale of the soldiers could be maintained high.

Such a fair and equitable division of labor and cooperation moved the allies deeply; they unanimously stated that they must not watch the soldiers of the Principality of Paya bear such a heavy mission alone, and must help them share part of it.

As a result, the five thousand Allied troops deployed on the border left their posts without permission and participated in raids and looting activities. There were even many battles over the loot; however, the Principality of Paya was stronger, so it was still the ones who suffered. Allies.

After hitting the wall several times in a row, they began to change their focus and forcefully crossed Thun's defense line to plunder; to their surprise, the Thun defenders on the border were simply vulnerable. After being defeated several times, They didn't even dare to stop the marauding army and watched them leave the country in a big way.

This result greatly stimulated the remaining soldiers of the Principality of Pal and their friendly forces. Military discipline and organization on the defense line began to collapse. All armies began to invest in this large-scale team building of "collective prosperity" Went during the event.

In just a few days, the entire defense line became ineffective; the trenches at key positions were empty, the important strongholds and military camps were filled with captured serfs and livestock, and the artillery forts were so filled with officers’ belongings that there was no place to defend them. Settlement - the ammunition boxes and artillery that were in the way were moved out early in the morning.

Everyone from the top commander down to the ordinary soldiers had no objections to this; anyway, the Thun people on the opposite side were just helping weak persimmons, and it was impossible to attack them. What was there to worry about?

To put it bluntly, even if they really attack, with the firepower of the three people of Thun and one rifle, they will be scattered after a few rounds of volleys. There is no need for artillery at all - artillery shells are so expensive!

Faced with the "military advice" given by his most trusted generals and allies, Duke Lagar had no choice but to accept the reality; after all, the first priority and prerequisite for war is to satisfy his own army.

If the military is unhappy, they make others even more unhappy.

On the other hand, Thun was also suffering from kidney failure, which surprised Duke Lagar; after receiving the invitation letter from Claude Francois, his first reaction was not that Thun had given in, but that he had serious doubts - -Isn't this a trap? !

When did the dignified Francois family lower their heads to others? And also by yourself? !

From the beginning of April to the end of May, the war between Clovis and Iser in just a few dozen days changed the entire Hantu. A situation occurred almost every day, which was so fast that Duke Lagar was overwhelmed and unable to react at all.

If someone had told themselves a year... no, a month ago, that Claude Francois would not blame you after you invaded Thun, but would generously forgive you, and even promised to forget about it, Duke Lagar. I wouldn't believe it even to death.

And now, Claude Francois's invitation was placed in front of him, with his own seal and signature on it.

Duke Lagar hesitated again and again, and the final choice was not to go.

In addition to being unable to imagine the scene of Grand Duke Thun shaking hands and making peace with him, he was even more worried that he would be arrested as soon as he arrived and be forced to give up the territory and population he had already eaten.

Wait, um, wait.

There are 40,000 soldiers in the Ysel Elf Guards Corps, and nearly 40,000 in Clovis's vanguard force plus Thun. The 80,000 troops are engaged in a fierce offensive and defensive battle around Eagle Point City... How to deduce, this battle has no I can't finish it in a month or two.

In this case, there is no need for the Principality of Paya to choose sides so quickly. It might as well maintain the current confrontation with the Grand Principality of Thun.

If the Yser Elf wins, then of course everything will be fine. The Principality of Paya will take advantage of the situation to besiege White Tower City, advance towards Jinshi City, and force the "traitors of the land" the Francois family to cede land and pay compensation;

If the winner is Clovis...well...then he might as well pretend to surrender and follow the Clovis people's lap; after all, everyone is a traitor and a lackey, how can the Francois family be one head taller than him?

Duke Lagar's wishful thinking came crashing down.

He now even expects that the Kingdom of Clovis will win the Battle of Eagle Point City - the Ysel elves and the Seven Cities Alliance are so close that they are right under his nose, and he must be wary of their colonization and infiltration at all times.

But Clovis is different. The core area they rule is closer to the north. The Seven Cities Alliance is too far away from them and the cost of direct control is too high. It is more cost-effective to support one or two allies and then regularly search and cut leeks.

For the Seven Cities Alliance, no matter who you pay, you have to pay. No matter how bad Clovis is, he is still in the human kingdom. He is naturally closer to and easier to accept emotionally than with the Ysel elves.

With this idea in mind, on May 28th, Duke Lagar stopped further offensive against Thun and ordered his generals to maintain the status quo; the army continued to plunder villages and towns on the border of Thun, but no longer advanced as before.

This made the generals and knights of the Paya Principality very dissatisfied. After all, if they continued to advance, the next stop would be White Tower City, which was much richer than the border.

But in contrast, the allies of the Paya Principality breathed a sigh of relief - even if they knew that Thun was very fragile now, they really didn't want to confront this behemoth head-on.

As for the soldiers on the border, they expressed their emotional stability about this... Honor and the principality are bullshit to them. Taking advantage of the opportunity to grab more is a good thing, and subsidizing the family to buy land, build a house and get married is a serious matter.

The Arezzo knight didn't care much about these untouchables who didn't know what glory was; in his eyes, soldiers were basically hyenas bought with money, and they shouldn't have any expectations in the first place.

Riding their horses under the bull flag in the central square of the village, the interested soldiers of the Arezzo Knights burned, killed and looted wantonly, just like hunters admiring their hounds in pursuit of their prey.

at this time……

Um?

The knight of Arezzo, who seemed to be hallucinating, suddenly raised his head and looked behind him; under the purple sunset, a cool and comfortable breeze blew across the earth, rolling up gentle waves in the wheat fields that had not been destroyed by the soldiers.

Looking at the pleasant scenery in front of him, the knight's eyes softened.

But the next second, he realized that he was not hallucinating - because not only him, but almost all the soldiers who were still searching and looting stopped what they were doing and looked at the rolling waves of wheat in shock. .

Following the vibrations underfoot, black shadows suddenly appeared one after another on the horizon painted golden red by the setting sun.

One by one, one by one... more and more, more and more dense.

The knight who gasped narrowed his eyes... Because of the dim sky and the fact that the other party was in the direction of the backlight, he could only see a rough outline, and that outline looked like...

"Cavalry, cavalry!"

A soldier standing next to him suddenly turned pale, pointed in the direction of the black shadow and screamed hysterically: "Cavalry, the Thun people's cavalry are coming to kill them. There are enough for hundreds of them!"

"No, not from Thun!" another soldier with better eyesight screamed:

"It's the Clovis people - look at the flag in their hands, it's the Clovis unicorn!"

"The Clovis are coming and we are doomed!"

"They are all cavalry, we can't escape!"

The atmosphere of panic spread rapidly among the soldiers like a virus.

The soldiers who had been showing off their power just now, burning, killing and looting wantonly were all confused and stood trembling on the spot. Some even cried out while lying on the corpses of the villagers.

"Quiet, please be quiet!"

The Arezzo knight angrily interrupted the soldiers who were still in confusion, "Hey!" with a sound, he pulled out the shining saber from the saddle:

"Soldiers, as you can see, we are about to face a very serious dilemma now!"

"The Clovis people are coming... We don't know whether they are friends or foes, and we can't even confirm their true identities; but we all know one thing, that is, we are standing on the land of the Hantu people, and we and Tu Just like our benefactors, they are all noble people of Han soil!"

The knights of Arezzo shouted loudly, pointing their swords at the Clovis cavalry who were getting closer and closer to them:

"To the Thuns and Paias, our war is a fratricidal war between brothers, and the Clovis are despicable invaders!"

"For the cowardly and incompetent people, when facing the invaders, they only know how to lie on the ground and cry, or run away like wild beasts; but we are different, we are the great Paya people, the great people of Han soil!"

"We...have our completely different ways of coping!"

The frightened soldiers turned their heads one after another, looked at each other in confusion, and then at the high-spirited Knight of Arezzo, who looked ready to die generously.

Ten minutes later, the surprised Storm Division cavalry battalion commander took over the village with only ruins from the Paya soldiers holding white flags without firing a shot.

Also included is the knight of Arezzo who was tied into a rice dumpling and knocked unconscious.